Edit: ntE has translated more of what cooller has said in this comment and it makes more sense.

This is google translate so obviously not completely accurate but still. The guy who first brought this to my attention on Discord has since disappeared and his comments vanishing with him, I can only presume that someone got to him. RIP info guy

Anton "Cooller" Xinggov criticized the organization of the European qualification for the Quake World Championship 2017 and reported on problems with the visa in the US for players from the CIS. Player Natus Vincere answered questions from ZERGTV after the match for entering the World Cup.

"I am very dissatisfied with [those], as they all do. And not even from the point of view of the organization, but in terms of how to be such a moron, to give 12 slots to the CIS and Europe. This is a complete game. Contempt.
I have a question: [why] is sitting there ZeRo4 ? A person knows perfectly well who plays where and where, nobody knows any nicknames, all the players-he himself played with them all.
But I talked to him and said: "Well, take it, make 16 slots, I do not know, 20 slots." He: "No, we are principled: it's a test tournament, now everything will remain the same as we announced, and nothing will change." How could I make such a grid so that I would play with Evil in the first round, Av3k played with StreNx in the first round? I have suspicions that this happened not randomly. That they deliberately do it. It should not be like this.
In general, I think that they should have made direct invites to some people. To call there, for example, Rapha , Cypher and a few more people. Me, maybe. We really, a pancake, we sweat on how much years already for their game, we do any ????. You could just take direct invites. And do not soar your brain to anyone. There Toxjq with AGENT play for the quota. Well, what is it? ".

About BYOC-Qualification on QuakeCon "Evil has a BYOC slot. Who is there for evil is sick, he will go BYOC to play, most likely. And there is a visa. [Slot] had to buy. Slot means that you come with your computer to this open area, you connect and play. Here he bought a place there. Naturally, I do not think that it will be direct his comp. He has some friends there who will just give him a play, and that's it. " On problems with visas for players from the CIS "It was Xron , Cypher , AGENT . For me personally, their trip to America is questionable, because they all have an open question with the visa. Even at Cypher. He tries to solve in every way and, naturally, Virtus.pro is trying to help him in every possible way. But it's not a fact that it will be solved. "

I personally dont think this was done on purpose, but it was rather a way to punish people who thought they were gonna have an easier time qualifying in later weeks. Then again this shouldve been clear from the start, some professionalism is expected when u have a tournament this big.

-All of it could've ended a lot faster, but nevertheless, it was pretty sweaty. He [av3k] manipulated me into playing on Polish server, so I had to play with 65 ping vs his 55. Well, you know, 55 is 55 and 65 is 65.

And he was so sneaky throughout the game. He was camping the same place all the time. Like when he has a good respawn - he's taking a good position so he can block multiple devices at the same time, like rocket launcher or railgun, he's not letting me get there and is literally standing still. Like I need a decent gun, but he's not letting me get it. Due to the ping I cannot spam/hit him with splash damage. Like I'm trying to jump him, bam, and I get fucked and I have to run away, but he is standing so that he also has megahealth spawn beside him. So he's controlling MH, that was the first floor of ZTN. He's controlling railgun, lightning gun, rocket launcher.

There were two maps, both of them 3-2, unreal. In some moments I was really unlucky. I would really like to thank the game that during the moment when av3k had 20hp left I didn't hear when he got the red armour. Like he was going in fast on Corrupted Keep, I was standing on top of the ledge over the armour where these small metal bars are, you know. And he just runs past and I didn't hear that he took the armour, goes into the tunnel and runs away and I'm just left standing there like an idiot waiting for an armour to spawn. And MH is to spawn in like 5 seconds. So I didn't hear the pickup, I jumped down, waited for a couple of seconds, understood that he did indeed take it. Like I'm getting out of the teleport and he's already there to meet me with all the HP restored, MH, red armour, so we're going at each other face to face. The score was 2-2 and that's it.

Then there comes the rant about the seedings and stuff [I'm not gonna translate the google translate in the OP]

About the day of the competition:

After I've lost to av3k I had a lot of moments to think about where I could've done better. I am completely drained of energy and vitality. Like you know, my phone is always ringing and I'm not answering [considering Anton had a birthday that day]. Like you know, my sister is calling me during the match, phone's buzzing the whole day, all the messages via SMS, vk, facebook. I'm not answering to anything because I want to be alone, I have a goal and I have to achieve it because it's really hard.

Like right now there are ten people sitting in the living room. They are here for like five hours and they are celebrating my birthday without me. And I just cannot do anything, it's my work...and still...feels like shit that it had to coincide like this. But well, it's ok, the main thing is that I've completed my goal so I'm really happy. So now I'm just going and get wasted with clear brain [conscience]. Imagine if I would've lost, sitting there, celebrating...understanding that I'm not going anywhere.

About weapons, newest patch, Syncerror and Clutch, Anarki and vo0:

Ping really influences rocket launcher and railgun.
I absolutely dislike the idea of introducing such changes one day before the qualifiers. Moreso the changes that affect the meta and game balance. I have been preparing for a long time for a previous game build where my gameplan was mostly based around Clutch. And now, one day before the qualifiers I am faced with the fact that all my tactics and hidden aces aren't working anymore.

Like I mean they fucked me up so much. After I lost to Agent without playing Clutch in 125fps I didn't pick him because I though he was a bit unbalanced and is going to be changed soon, so there's no sense to really pick him. Afterwards I had a talk with Syncerror. I am telling him, like, duuuuude... Clutch has to be changed, it's retarded. And he's like: "We're not gonna change anything before QuakeCon. ONE HUNDRED PER CENT. Like the balance we have now is gonna be there before QuakeCon." A lot of people were witnesses to this. And like, they make these changes. I wrote to Syncerror, like what the actual fuck, I've believed you, you're not the last guy out there and you're playing so dirty. I've been playing with Clutch for the whole month, I've been strategizing around him and suddenly they just fuck me up.
"But like you've been asking to nerf him, so we did it." [in Syncerror's voice]. But you said that you wouldn't nerf him. I'm so fucking mad about it, fuck.

You understand they [pro players] have all been whining about him. We had a chat with all the pro players there, there were like 30-40 people, everyone who made it to the qualifier. I didn't say anything, but they were all whining, especially people who play Anarki, they were so whining about Clutch. To be honest, Clutch was a direct counter to Anarki. One on one he was a counter, Clutch, the only champion. Like you cannot say that about any other champion that he has an upper hand over Anarki. Anarki is OP now. I won versus vo0 not because I am a better player, but because he's a fucking goof and got scared. He's been shitting all over me during practice games, but now his hands were shaking probably.
Like I don't know what to do now, Clutch is unplayable, he's fucked, too nerfed. They just had to double the cooldown of his shield ability and that's it. They shouldn't have touched his HP, like now he's just so weak. You have watched the game now. I am 100/200, I switch the shield on and die from Sorlag, even when I hit the direct rocket from the get go.

- nerfing clutch before regionals wasn't good, particularly when syncerror promised that they won't
- anarki is OP. everybody says it, except the anarki players and it is lame that they don't admit seeing the elephant in the room. Only rapha can counter anarki... by picking anarki himself... if u can't beat them, join them
- the game is ping sensitive. it is the game that weird was always dreaming of, where low pingers like himself have a clear advantage over others (unless the opponent picks anarki :P). It seems that they do what I was sensing they do to improve their netcode, they just remove logic instead of trying to really improve anything and the game naturally becomes a little better for lower pings, but that is NOT what good netcode is.

I have yet to see any of the players saying Anarki is OP start playing Anarki. Something doesn't quite add up there.

it's because of his movement and the impact it has on playing the rest of the champions. at least, this is for me and the fact that I feel he is an annoying champ to play against. if u play him a lot, when u switch to the other champs u feel like u can't turn. this is not happening when u switch from clutch to other champs, because clutch has a completely distinct movement system that doesn't mess with the movement of the other champs.

Imho Anarki should be rebalanced. Make his hitbox a bit bigger but give him 100hp instead of 75 and make his ability not increase his maximum but give a flat amount of something around 50hp.

totally agree with making him stronger, but easier to hit. Sorlag uses bunny hoping as well, but it's for me the funnest champ to play against, since she is strong but easy to hit. What makes anarki annoying, is that u can't hit him, especially when u r not a pro, but even rapha had hard time fraging gellehsak's anarki in ztn (he was trying for 10 mins and lost in the end). I don't want anarki to become weak, but just less annoying.

it's nice of u saying that he needs to be rebalanced, being an anarki player. I appreciate that [+]. it would be OK by me and probably others too, if he is rebalanced to a strong top tier champ, but not very annoying to play against, so that both sides can enjoy playing the game no matter the outcome. Maybe, is not the same for the non-anarki pros, but for the rest of us it's all about fun.

I get what cooller is saying, and some of it I agree with. But to be fair I was standing right behind av3k and watching him play that game and he was playing really really well. He read situations well, took fights really well, his aim was on point.

So yea, as much as cooller likes to complain I do think av3k was really on point that LAN an played like a beast the entire tournament.

edit: I would put money on av3k making top 5, and maybe even top 3 at quakecon. Def has the potential to even take top spot if keeps getting better.

he's taking a good position so he can block multiple devices at the same time, like rocket launcher or railgun, he's not letting me get there and is literally standing still. Like I need a decent gun, but he's not letting me get it.

my fucking sides

so avek played unfair because cooller couldnt get the items he needed :O

also agreed on tricking him into playing on warsaw server, if avek were a true gentleman he would happily oblige to play on moscow server from london so cooller's shitter spam would be more precise

Yeah, Anarki is op. I mean, With anarki you can hit much easier than with other champions and Anarki has hardest hitbox / movement to hit. Increase Anarki hitbox, slower left right movement while in fight or do some other changes for balance.

You know that is much easier to hit. With anarki you can go around your opponent with any weapon while your opponent cant dodge and you hit much easier while he cant hit you back unless if you challange him face to face. I even find easier to hit rail with anarki, but im non anarki player and Im not really willing to adapt to his movement as hes an op champ atm and cool to watch as spectactor

Anarki is def the most annoying and OP champion, hitting him is extremely hard, especially with this netcode we have now. Slash isnt anything better either...joke to play against. They should make bigger hitboxes and make them less leaning when strafing.

nyx is very tolerable. Sometimes she might frustrate you, but normally and if u aim well and the opponent doesnít make some premier dodging, you will hit her. even the times that you donít, it kind of feels justified.

slash is borderline intolerable, but not many players pick her and even the ones that do, canít have very precise control of her.

What the fuck are you whining about, you bitch-weakling ass-munches??? You really are proving yourselves to be a weak-minded always-blubbering and offended crowd, you pussies.
"Anarki is op", "Clutch is op", "rail is op", "nail is op" etc...
You want everything to be nerfed and fucked up to greyish non-tastable condition, where every champ is easy to hit, easy to dodge and easy to counter with every other champ? What is the actual fuck with you people???

First off you agree that OW-moba-like champs are the needed injection into Quake series to make it fancy for the newcomers and shit, and now you shitting all over the places with "nerf this" and "nerf that" bullshit!

Go fuck yourselves, crybabies! Go now, and fuck yourselves right up in the ass - quake is not for you, and neither is any kind of big time challenge!

Why is Agent not complaining shit about Clutch nerf or op? He just grabbed the next best hero and blasted his way through the damn brackets, even with questionable admin decisions on dm6 restart. He hates Anarki too, with all the swears you can imagine, but he never EVER said that it should be nerfed or smth. Because it is what it is - a very distinctive pick, that defines speed and slim hitbox, to annoy the hell out of the opponent. DO NOT nerf him, because it will make him mixed with mediocrity!

DO NOT nerf Clutch, because it's a big boy, and even considering his health, shield, boost and armor - he's a vacuum cleaner for every projectile sent approximately to his way.

DO NOT nerf any weapons. If anything - increase the rail to do 100 dmg in zoom and 90 in normal. The shit is to be heavily aware of, and if you pee in your pants and cry getting hit hard - DO NOT play quake in the first place.

DO NOT mess with heroes' attributes - they are what they are! It is NOT that you can make such different personalities to be equal on average - they WILL be different and fitting only to certain conditions and/or style of play.

It is the STRATEGY and your tactical decisions that are to be adapted through the continuous play, not the fucking rules of the game, you little whiny fucks.

With this rotten idea of 'balancing' in hero-based duel fps the only thing you may get is bring all the picks to be AVERAGELY equal, and that is totally opposite to what QC is right now.
You wanna play in equal conditions - play Q3A, otherwise shut the fuck up and play your moba-style bullshit, which is DESIGNED to be unequal at every pick possible!

really? seen players iviews? they all talking about champs to be the foremost property that differs qc from any other quake, and I don't see any threads asking to disable the champs mechanics. Not supported by any significant majority of players, that is.
Touche?

What it means is that there is such a thing as "balance", and different people will have different opinions on where that balance lies, so discussing it is perfectly okay, which is what you seem to have a problem with in your hysterical rant above, assuming it was you.

read again, and try to grasp this time.
and btw - 'hysterical' is to rant 'i want 1,000,000 dmg and a pixel hitbox'.

the valid argument is that it is not wiseto fuck around with weapons thatwere tuned throughout the last 20 years andhave their best properties in one and only shape of q3a armoury. Plus - looking for a balance in hero-based kindergarden, which is qc, is a mind-masturbation process. This moba-shit IS to be op at one hero over another, giving the playstyles a solid pack of assured picks, and quite a stellar countering from ANY champ to ANY other at hands of a good player.
Once again - EVERYONE is free to pick the champ you consider an op. If you don't - you just planning to do betterwith smth else, right?
And once again- Agent and Cooller have shown that independently of nerf/op annoying switchbacks the only thing that matterts is pure fucking skill! So leave the damn heroes alone at what they are right now - play the hell out of them and then maybe you stand a chance to find your individual set for specific maps or even opponents.

Or just invest all your power into fast analyzer processing and play with whatever given set you feel to, like Agent for instance.
Yes,he often hates heroes other than picked by himself, and gives away very funny swears on anything and anyone he's duelling atm, but again - he never ever complains about this kiddie 'balance', because he will pick the next best nerf or op and fuck you up the same frustrating way that you will run and cry for the next nerf, baby.

The 'balance' is in the hands of the players, not heroes' stats.

If you still do not see that, than I expect you to write in 'nerf Ranger's orb', 'nerf Nyx's stealthboy', 'nerf lg', 'nerf mg' etc. threads a while later.

On the contrary - you seem to know very much about everything hysterical. You also tend to mention 'crying', where it's not applicable.
Like I said - very feminine ways of talking from you.
Why do you girls tend to hiding yourselves in the internet discussions? Even teenqueen makes more sensible comments here in esr threads.

You enter the thread calling people names for discussing game balance in a thread partly about Cooller's opinions on the matter. It is long-winded, angry, and emotional. It doesn't show any self-control either, thus anon. It is by definition a hysterical rant. Those words can't be applied to anything I've said, like a kid in a playground trying to reflect an insult.

You go on and on about bitches, pussies, girls, and femininity like you're some sort of manly man. Classic keyboard warrior stuff. LMAO

And then you talk about being "sensible". Seriously?

The one pixel hitbox comment is an exaggeration to make a point. It cannot be a hysterical rant---by definition. Your entire showing here just makes me think you're an angry Russian anon not worth taking seriously.

You cannot choose any arbitrary values for game mechanics. The best ones that give what people think is the best game in terms of fun and competition have to be found through a process. That process involves debate and testing. That's game design everywhere. There's no reason to believe id magically got it right so early in the process. There's nothing wrong with talking about it.

Yes, pro players will use whatever works, but that doesn't make a good game. The fact that everyone can abuse something abusable doesn't necessarily make it good.

I do agree things should not be changed before tournaments though. That's what Cooller was talking about, and also about some imbalances.

You're calling people kids (even respected people like cooller) because they don't quietly put up with a butt fucking (i.e. metaphor for things they dislike strongly). So I assume doing that, "taking it up the butt", makes you a man.

In any case, this is the old whining about whining issue.

The original whine at least addresses what some people feel is a real problem. Whine itself is not a problem because it can be ignored, especially if you're impartial on the subject. What's worse? Whining about a problem or whining about a non-problem?

There's no need to drop some circular reasoning, it doesn't add to any valid argument.

I am generally announcing that everyone bitching about X Y Z are kids, I'm not sure if you're familiar with it, but when kids don't get their way, they cry, they moan and they just act like little shits.

If they haven't got the ability to at least articulate something that makes sense, instead of looping around to the same null and void issues that have been around since the inception of competitive video gaming or gaming in general then they just need re-evaluate their own attitudes.

If I do remember correctly, I haven't said anything about anyone being butt fucked, so you're just pulling out random shit as you do, from what I've seen from the various posts you've gotten involved in.

Let me TL:DR this.

Deal with change, embrace it, cry about it (In your own time.) See what happens in the future.

The sad thing is, humans as we all know will never be satisfied with that there currently is available to them.

You are whining about whine. You are crying, like a kid, about other people "crying". This is at best as bad as the original whine, but most likely even less constructive because it is impossible for what you are doing to fix any problem with the game.

You don't have to read it if you don't like it. Don't pretend anything you have said is more useful than what they are saying. You're not discussing the subject; you're criticizing others for daring to do so. You talk about valid argumentation while providing none of your own.

"Butt fucked" is a metaphor, just like your talk about kids and crying because no one here is an actual kid. You are comparing people to kids in the same way I'm comparing their problems to being fucked in the butt.

Change does not need to be accepted when you're talking about a video game. You find problems. You talk about them. You advocate for CHANGES to get things fixed. There is no need to lie down and be quiet about what bothers you in the game and say, "Oh sync, I love how you did this, and I love how you did that." all day. No one does that, and for good reason. Every actual successful game ever made gives plenty of reward to its creators.

Change does not need to be accepted when you're talking about a video game. You find problems. You talk about them. You advocate for CHANGES to get things fixed. There is no need to lie down and be quiet about what bothers you in the game and say, "Oh sync, I love how you did this, and I love how you did that." all day. No one does that, and for good reason. Every actual successful game ever made gives plenty of reward to its creators.

^ there is a massive online forum where people can bitch, complain and advocate changes to their beloved quake games.

How can the state of the game not be relevant to a tournament and the players playing in it? You can obviously see that is what Cooller is talking about, in part, and that is the subject of a lot of this thread.

Okay, so you're telling me you have the pure raw skill and ability to pop someone in to the air all the time and hit them with a direct rocket? No luck involved right? Cool. I didn't know that then, wow. You must have mad talent/skill.

No point in even trying to justify combat, tactics or decision-making because we all know LOLCA has no real strength when it comes to that.

Every negative aspect has already been discussed at one point. No need to do it over and over again. We know what's shit and why it's shit without posting walls of text. It's all about reminding ourselves that nothing has been done about it (yet)

This website is where good people come to die, they get sucked in to the negative downward spiral that is ESR.

its not like you cant read this site and still enjoy the game, no downward spiral for me at least. i read everything people had to complain about here and i still play more quake than in the 4-5 years before. maybe you need to let go of the idea that esr should be a mirror of how you feel / want to feel about the game.

People come up with new content and/or ideas.

ESR shoots them down.

and still its one of the few places to actually discuss any quake content/ideas. discussions on reddit are rare and boring, the official forums are a clusterfuck and sites as plusforward have about 5 comments a thread. and this is coming from someone who just recently spend a whole evening writing the first meta report where the first comment i got was "nobody cares". got a chuckle out of that and moved on

I personally hate positivie comments about things I do, because I don't know what to do with them. People tell me "this thing you've done is great!", and I just don't understand what should I do with that information. But if someone tells me "this aspect of that thing you made is shit because whatever", it's useful for me because I can analyze if I did a mistake or was it by design shitty in some regard, etc, and then I can act based on that feedback or consciously ignore it if I find it not significant.

Because I am annoyed at other people's positive comments about my work and hate when they provide useless information to me, I generally don't make the same to others and mostly post only negative feedback because it's the only useful one.

100% this. They have to announce it before the first qualy is played, just common sense, otherwise it gives conspiracy theorists like me a lot to say, like, they might have choosen this method after seeing the qualy results to fit an agenda...

what's fair is fair tbh, making last minute changes isn't really fair - by all means change things but give people time to prep.
and all quake players evidently had an edge, just look at the qc qualifications!

I heavily disagree with inviting people because they are considered to be good enough by some higher ups.
QL had an invite structure that made sure that for the first 3 years nobody got to play on lan unless they had a strong organization behind them rather than have the skill to win. Which has been done better on QC through qualifiers.
As to how the qualifiers were shaped... lots can be said to make it more fair, but they should keep it open to everyone who wants to compete without taking up spots for invitations.
Maybe you could promise the finalists of the first QC Qcon a spot in the next Qcon but that's about as far as I would go in favoring people.

(a solution would be to play out each qualifier and base the seeding on that + first quali tourney win > 2nd quali tourney win > ... > 4th qualifier wins.
So you end up with 1st seed = winner of 1st quali, 2nd seed winner of 2nd quali.... 5th seed = runner up of 1st quali etc.)

it's difficult to say 'who were supposed to be invited' as imho they should've qualified (as they were possibly not 'the best' but were good enough to take down some of the regular names).
But really early on there were some people like zuub4, lizahd, bl4jnd, D1onysus, 1o1, guard, Dem0n (and myself). Those come to mind as examples of people that I hardly saw on lan early on while they were really good online (I think Dem0n qualified himself for some tourney reasonably early but that's about it for all of them). Plus also some nicks that I suspected were fakenicks but never got to know for sure (ahtkfuy, s333rj, orkl)
There are many more though who could've had a chance to qualify.

Do note that some of the players might've failed hard on lan while others would do fine (zuub4 and 1o1 for instance both had kinda dodgy connections which makes it difficult to predict how they would do under better circumstances)

1. All i've said is only my point of view. You shall agree or disagree.
2. I play quake series for almost 20years and i think i could know something about quake even its a kind of new game as QC.
3. I RESPECT id Software and Bethesda in fact they all making us able to HAVE A CHANCE to be a part of cybersport, earn some titles or even money. THANK ID SOFTWARE and BETHESDA.
4. But i wish them to RESPECT all players and core-players even more in fact we're making their product more popular, more competitive, more balanced with more quality.
5. In that case i felt a kind of disrespect in fact NA&Canada to have 12 slots for lan and all CIS/Baltic/Europe countries for same amount of slots in fact i feel like EU Region has more pro-players(IMO).
6. I felt a kind of disrespect to myself when one of head-admins says that: "SyncError: No Clutch changes are planned.
SyncError: No Clutch changes before Quakecon are likely.". In fact i was trying to tell them Clutch should be nerfed ONE MONTH AGO. They didnt listen to me and was saying that: "SyncError: No, I don't think he's unbalanced and our match data agrees. While good, he isn't winning all of his rounds and isn't good enough to be heavily picked by all players...
SyncError: In comparison you have Champions like Ranger who are picked in almost every single match by every player.
SyncError: Clutch is great, but also easy to hit."
7. I dont really care about Meta in fact i think i'm able to play any champions, i just need some time for pracctise. But if you say "No Clutch changes before Quakecon are likely.", you should keep your words, Sync.
8. Av3k is a strong player. He won coz he was stronger than me that day. I've played with a such disadavantage in ping but it was MY DECISION to play on Polish server in fact we was not be able to play on other server with fairest ping. Difference of ping was about 20 on the rest of servers.
9. VoO is a strong player. Still think he is best Anarki player in the world atm. But i won coz i was stronger in that day. And my hands was shaking as well. Yes, coz it was last chance for us to get able to come for 1v1 QCON tournament. And we both was one step away from not getting it.
10. Having 8 slots of BYOC is too much in my opinion. You better have 3/4 direct invites and 5/4 BYOC slots. Should be more fair.